Corny `Freddie' Just More Saturday-morning Junk

August 29, 1992|By GARRET CONDON; Courant Film Critic

Take a half-baked fairy tale, combine it with one of the really preposterous "Man from U.N.C.L.E." episodes, use third-rate animation to bring it to the screen, and you've pretty much got "Freddie as F.R.O.7." If this represents a major British effort to gain entry into the ever growing animated feature-film market, the folks at Disney can relax. "Freddie" is, in turns, insipid, corny, gratuitously violent and sexist -- in short, a must-see film for kids hooked on the same kind of TV junk on Saturday mornings.

The story begins in some fairybook kingdom with a narrator doing a really bad Frenchman-speakingEnglish routine ("zee boy was vull af zorror.") Little Prince Frederic, his mother already dead, watches his evil Aunt Messina kill his dad, the king. (I think the Disney people should take a look at Messina, who resembles Maleficent from "Sleeping Beauty.") Did I mention that they all have magic powers? Anyway, Messina turns Fred into a frog and then turns herself into a snake and tries to dine on frog's legs, but Freddie is saved by Nessie, the friendly Loch Ness-type monster.

Freddie hits the lily pads, but he actually grows to human-size and retains his magical powers and becomes (but of course!) a French secret service agent -- although how his fellow agents can resist turning him into lunch remains a mystery. As the voice of the adult Freddie, Ben Kingsley -- who definitely needs a new agent -- does his best Maurice Chevalier. The suave, green agent is called to find the evildoer who is causing British landmarks -- like the Tower of London -- to vanish.

Well, after a couple of requisite "frog" jokes, Freddie acquires two British sidekicks: gadget-master Scotty and the curvaceous Daffers -- a cross between Jessica Rabbit and Jane Jetson. Behind the vanishing tourist traps is the evil and overweight El Supremo and a hard-tofollow plot to conquer Britain by destroying British culture and stupifying the citizens -- sort of what the current royal family is up to. Well, behind El Supremo is a familiar looking snake -- could it be Freddie's reptilian aunt? Mais, oui! And so, the final showdown is a family affair.

The animation is flat and stiff throughout and owes much to

both Disney and the Saturday morning genre. In one scene, Messina's musical number, "Evilmainya," the depiction of her evil minions are square-jawed Nazis and hooded Klansmen is effective. As for the music numbers -- the opening music is a duet featuring George Benson and Patti Austin -- they are mercifully few and completely forgettable.

Director, writer producer Jon Acevski seems to have used his own magical powers to turn Freddie into a (poof!) dog.

Rated PG, this movie has violence and lots of scary monsters and is unsuitable for very small children.

Film review

FREDDIE AS F.R.O.7., written and directed by Jon Acevski; director of photography; music composed by David Dundas, Rick Wentworth, Holly Johnson, John Themis, George O'Dowd; Tony Guy, animation director; Denis Rich, storyboard visualiser; Paul Shardlow, art director; produced by Acevski and Norman Priggen; a release of a Miramax Films, opened Friday at Showcase Cinemas in Berlin. Running time: 90 minutes.